52 Ancestors 2015: #15 Mary Green, Early Pasadena Pianist

1889 Wm. Knabe & Co. piano advertisement
http://pianoartisans.com/piano-info/piano-history/knabe-piano-company/

What was to be a joyous birthday present from the late P. M. Green to his daughter now comes to her as a sweet but sad memorial to his love. Some months ago, the millionaire ... gave his order for a specially designed Art Grand Piano to be manufactured by the famous old house William Knabe and Co., Baltimore.  Such special work requires months of patient waiting before the finished product is ready for shipment and this order was no exception to the rule... The piano arrived only yesterday, and is now on display at the Pacific Music company's warerooms... Seldom, if ever, has any show window in this city been decorated by such a magnificent specimen of the piano maker's art.  (Los Angeles Herald, 9 Aug 1903) 

The recipient of that piano was Mary Green, my 1st cousin 4 times removed.  She was born in March 1863 in Shelby County, Indiana and was the only child of Perry M. Green and Henrietta "Hettie" Campbell.  Mary's mother had poor health, which influenced the family's decision to seek a better climate. When Mary was 10 years old, she and her parents, aunt, uncle, and cousins joined a migration of Indiana families to southern California. 

Mary was the founder of the Pasadena Symphony Club, which met for the first time at her parents' house on November 5, 1896.  The club's meetings included papers given on composers and musical forms, orchestral and piano rehearsals, and many public performances.  According to several newspaper accounts, Mary was a remarkable musician and a pianist of great technical ability.  (I wish there was a recording of her playing!)  Among the pieces she performed with the Pasadena Symphony Club were:

Dvorak's Symphony No. 5 in E minor "From the New World"

Saint-Säens' Dance Macabre "Dance of Death"

Raff's Symphony No. 5 in E Major "Lenore"

Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" 

After Mary's father died in March of 1903, her mother's health also began to decline.  Hettie, who for a while benefited from the climate change, eventually contracted severe bronchitis and passed away in 1908.  Two years later, on July 22, 1910, Mary Green died from heart failure at the age of 47.  She never married and has no descendants.  I wonder what happened to Mary's beautiful piano.  I like to hope that it is preserved in a museum somewhere.

52 Ancestors 2015: #12 and #13 The Twin Doctors Green

Left to right: William F. Green, Mr. Davis, Mr. Parrish, Thomas G. Green.
On the back of the picture is written "Davis and Parrish, from Illinois." 

This photograph of four young medical students was taken by Sally E. Garrity at her Louisville, Kentucky studio sometime between 1886 and 1889.  Miss Garrity was one of the first female photographers to achieve recognition and success. Often she photographed as many as 150 people a day, while also overseeing the development of every picture herself.  I've always been intrigued by this picture because of the strange way the men are positioned.  While researching Sally Garrity, I found that many of her pictures are charaterized by unusual poses. 

William Frame Green and Thomas Gary Green were identical twins, born on April 6, 1865 in Arlington, Rush County, Indiana.  Their father, James Wilkinson Green, was a doctor; four of their older brothers were doctors as well, including James C. Green and John D. Green.  William and Thomas graduated together from Louisville Medical College in Kentucky in 1889.  

For 10 years William and Thomas both practiced medicine in Shelbyville, Indiana, then William moved his practice to Indianapolis and eventually to Cambridge City, Indiana.  Thomas stayed in Shelbyville until he died in 1929 at the age of 63.  William died in 1931 in Cambridge City.

Both William and Thomas were interested in their family history. William wrote a history of his family that was used for SAR and DAR applications.  I have a letter that Thomas wrote to his fifteen-year-old nephew, James Cyrus Green (my great-grandfather), containing stories about the early Greens in America.  The following is a quote from the letter: "I have looked up the family history for you and will write you a brief copy, which if you will keep may be useful and valuable to you sometime."

52 Ancestors 2015: #10 A Tragic Accident at the Indiana Republican Convention

Dr. James C. Green, son Hugh, and wife Azzie, c. 1892

James C. Green was born March 10, 1860, in Arlington, Rush County, Indiana.  The son of Dr. James Wilkinson Green and Mary Jane Gowdy, he was the seventh of 13 siblings.  Six of those siblings became doctors, including James and his brother, John D. Green (my great great grandfather.)  James attended courses at the newly-formed Medical College of Indiana, which was a department of Butler University. Following his graduation in 1880, James began his practice as a physician alongside his father in Arlington.

On October 23, 1883, James was married to Azzie E. Winship, a young woman from Rushville, Indiana. The couple had two children -- an infant daughter who died in 1885 and a son, Hugh Clifford Green, born on December 31, 1886.

In 1892, James C. Green was chosen to be a delegate to the Indiana Republican convention.  The convention, which was held on June 28 at the Princess Rink in Fort Wayne, lasted for only one day. The event drew such a large crowd that officials threatened to clear the hall to make room for all the delegates waiting to get inside.  In the chaos, James was pushed against a door knob and critically wounded.  Sadly, he died from his injuries a few weeks later.

The Indianapolis Journal, July 17, 1892

52 Ancestors 2015: #4 Mary Ann Williamson, Who Knitted Her Way To Indianapolis

"Old Woman Knitting a Sock" by Ivan Khrutsky
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Polly [as Mary Ann was also called] decided to go to Indianapolis to trade one day.  So she climbed on her little mule with her knitting.  She rode and she rode and she knitted and she knitted.  Finally, she met a soldier and asked, "How much farther is Indianapolis?"  He answered, "You passed through Indianapolis two miles back!!"

I found this humorous story in One Man's Family, written by Olive Lewis Kolb.  The tale is attributed to Mary Ann's son, Stephen Theodore Worland.

Mary Ann Williamson was born on October 20, 1811 in Kentucky.  (My 4th great grandmother and I share a birthday and a fondness for knitting!)  I don't have any information about her parents. According to Kolb, she may have been an adopted child.

On March 4, 1833, Mary Ann married Stephen Dominic Worland in Marion County, Indiana.  Stephen came from a Catholic family with deep roots in the history of early Maryland.  By 1840, the Worlands had settled in Shelby County, Indiana.  Mary Ann was the mother of 12 children, the oldest of which was my 3rd great grandfather, John William Worland.  Sadly, Mary Ann's three youngest children did not live past infancy.

Sometime between 1859-1860, the Worlands moved to Millwood, Missouri.  At the outbreak of the Civil War, Missouri was divided on the issue of slavery.  By 1863, conditions there were tumultuous and unstable. The Worlands decided to move back to Indiana.  Tilson Vincent Worland, Mary Ann's grandson, recounted the Worland family's return to Indiana from Missouri:

I have heard my father, Stephen Theodore, tell of the trip back to Indiana.  The womenfolk returned by train, but grandfather [Stephen Dominic Worland] and his six sons drove through bringing six horses. They ferried the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and followed the old National Trail from St. Louis through Terre Haute, Indiana, to Indianapolis.  It took a week to travel from St. Louis to Terre Haute and they never saw the sun all week.  They had a dog, and after reaching Indiana ... the dog disappeared and several weeks later showed up at the old Missouri home.  How the dog crossed the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers on his return home is still a mystery.   (One Man's Family by Olive Lewis Kolb, pages 1044-1045.)

In 1879, two of Mary Ann's children, 43 year-old Sarah Ann Oefelein and 35 year-old George Tilson Worland, died within the space of two months.  I wonder if there was an epidemic of some kind in Shelby County, Indiana at that time.

Mary Ann Williamson Worland died on December 23, 1894 at the home of her son Stephen and was buried next to her husband at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Cemetery in Waldron, Shelby County, Indiana.

52 Ancestors: #51 Emily Ann Montgomery, a Posthumous Child

Illustration by unknown artist.

I was a posthumous child.  My father's eyes had closed upon the light of this world six months, when mine opened upon it.  There is something strange to me, even now, in the reflection that he never saw me; and something stranger yet in the shadowy remembrance that I have of my first childish associations with his white gravestone in the churchyard, and of the indefinable compassion I used to feel for it lying out there alone in the dark night. (From The Personal History and Experience of David Copperfield the Younger by Charles Dickens.)

These words help me imagine what life might have been like for my third great-grandmother, Emily Ann Montgomery.  According to One Man's Family by Olive Lewis Kolb, Emily was a posthumous baby.

Emily Montgomery was born April 24, 1838, the eighth and last child of John and Elizabeth Montgomery. Her father passed away only a month before her birth, on March 6th.  Emily's mother remarried twice after John Montgomery died, first to Jacob Shiplet, then finally to a man with the surname Bly or Blythe.

Just a few days prior to her 19th birthday, Emily married John William Worland on April 20, 1857 in Shelby County, Indiana.  They had a family of nine children: George Isom, Cecilia Elyrine, Mary Elizabeth, Samuel Montgomery, Lewis Milburn, Martha, Zerada Frances, Lucy Burnetta, and Sarah Ella.

A devout Catholic, Emily was a member of the St. Joseph Catholic Church in Shelby County.  Six days after her 77th birthday, Emily passed away at the home of her daughter, Lucy Burnetta Hendricks.  She is buried at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Cemetery in Waldron, Indiana.

52 Ancestors: #47 James Whitlow Trees, Still a Democrat

Portrait taken from 1888 History of Rush County

J. W. Trees, of Manilla, was in town today on his way to Indianapolis.  He is still a democrat.  (Columbus Daily Herald; Columbus, Indiana; 5 Apr 1892)

I was amused when I ran across this article about my 4th great grandfather, and I can only guess at what the writer was implying.  A biographical sketch of James W. Trees also mentions that "he was ever a democrat." (History of Rush County, Part II)  It seems that he readily expressed his political views.

James Whitlow Trees was born March 21, 1818 in Clermont County, Ohio.  Adam Trees and Mary Ann Hill were his parents.  His middle name came from his Irish grandmother, Elizabeth Jane Whitlow.  James migrated with his family to Rush County, Indiana on March 27, 1823.

At the age of 20, James decided to pursue a career of medicine.  He went to the small town of Milroy, Indiana and studied under Dr. Samuel Barbour, who was one of the earliest physicians of Rush County.  While he underwent medical training, he also was a clerk at a dry goods store. James received his physician's license from the Indiana Medical Institute in May of 1841.  A few months later, James set up his own medical practice in Manilla, Indiana.

He married Catherine Mull on September 18, 1842 in Rush County, Indiana.  The couple had six children together, but only three sons lived to adulthood: Ethan Allen, Leander Mull, and Cyrus Ebon.  The three youngest children -- Lavanche, Maggie, and Marshall -- all died at a young age.

Around 1852, James W. Trees entered into a mercantile partnership with Jacob and Cyrus Mull, his father-in-law and brother-in-law.  According to William DePrez Inlow, author of In Old Kentucky, "It was common at the time for physicians to engage in business in addition to their profession."

By 1864, Dr. Trees had sold his medical practice to his son-in-law, Dr. J. J. Inlow, and was operating his own dry goods store in Manilla. "By strict attention to his profession, he amassed a goodly fortune.  He and his two sons, Ethan A. and Cyrus E., were of the staunchest business men in the county." (The History of Rush County, Part II)  According to the Indianapolis Journal, the store was robbed in 1875; the burglars got away with $500.

An early map of the town of Manilla, Indiana.  The land Dr. Trees owned is highlighted. 

In 1872, the small town of Manilla received state-wide attention when James W. Trees discovered several fossilized bones of a mastodon on the farm of his neighbor, A. J. Westerfield. (You can see the farm in the map shown above.)  The Indianapolis Journal reported that the fossils "were in a remarkable state of preservation."

The residence of Dr. James W. Trees in Manilla, Indiana.

On April 25, 1895, a Shelbyville newspaper stated that James W. Trees was dangerously ill. He died a short while later, on May 4, 1895, and was buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Shelbyville, Indiana.

Recently, I made an interesting discovery.  There is a subdivision in Manilla, Indiana named after James W. Trees!  Looks like I need to make a trip to Manilla so I can see his house (shown at right) and his subdivision!  {Update:} I visited the Trees house in Manilla on July 5, 2015 with my family.  The current owners told us that when they renovated the building, they found an underground passageway that connected the house to the doctor's office across the street.  One of the front rooms in the house was fitted out for a funeral parlor.  When a patient died, the body was discreetly brought into the house via the tunnel.

July 5, 2015.  My brother and I in front of James W. Trees' house in Manilla, Indiana.

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52 Ancestors: #43 Mary Ann Hill, Born on the Atlantic Ocean

Mary Ann Hill was born aboard a ship on passage from Ireland to America on June 6, 1790.  This is confirmed by 1880 census reports from four of her children.  Her birth at sea is also mentioned in a biographical sketch of her son, James Whitlow Trees. (The sketch is from the History of Rush County, Part II.)

Like many Irish immigrants of that period, Mary Ann's parents, John Hill and Elizabeth Jane Whitlow, came from Ulster.  John Hill was a weaver in trade.

After the Hills arrived in America, they located somewhere in Pennsylvania.  I don't know exactly when they left that state, but Mary Ann spent most of her early years in Bracken County, Kentucky.

In 1811, Mary Ann married another first-generation American, John Adam Trees, in Clermont County, Ohio.  After spending well over 10 years in Clermont County, Adam and Mary Ann decided to move to Indiana.  For 10 days, they traveled over almost impassable roads, crossing the White and Miami Rivers. Their youngest child, John Kell Trees, was barely two months old at the time. The family arrived in Richland Township, Rush County, Indiana on March 27, 1823. The Trees raised ten children, who all lived to adulthood.

Mary Ann Trees died on July 23, 1863 in Shelby County, Indiana, less than a year after the death of her husband.  She was 73 years old.  Her father, John Hill, outlived her by a few years.

52 Ancestors: #42 Thomas Worland's Wheel Chart

Thomas Worland's Wheel Chart, which includes 75 grandchildren.
I descend from Thomas' son Stephen, then from Stephen's son John.

One of most useful and interesting genealogical treasures I have inherited is a book about the Worland family.  One Man's Family, written by Olive Lewis Kolb with the help of two Worland descendants, is well over 1000 pages long, including maps, biographical sketches, wills, and family pedigrees.  Hidden within its many pages is this wheel chart of Thomas Worland's family. The wheel chart makes it easy to see how often family names are reused.

Thomas Worland was the eldest son of John Worland III and Mary Brady.  He was born June 11, 1774 in Maryland, probably in Prince George's County.  He assumed responsibility very early in life.  His father's will, written just before Thomas' 16th birthday, named him as co-executor with his mother. (One Man's Family by Kolb)

Thomas married nineteen year-old Virlinda Hardy on December 8, 1799 in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Thomas and his wife raised a large family of 13 children, who all reached adulthood.  Barnabas, a younger brother of Thomas, married Virlinda Hardy's sister, Theresa.

Thomas, Barnabas, and most of the Worland family joined with about 60 other Catholic families in a compact to migrate to Kentucky between 1785 and 1807. This migration was inspired by the great poverty being endured in Maryland and the promise of a better life in Kentucky. By 1810, almost all of the Worland known to be living at that time were in Kentucky.  (One Man's Family by Kolb)

Thomas and Barnabas Worland [were] worthy and respectable citizens, always in active and useful occupation. (The History of Pioneer Lexington, Kentucky by Charles R. Staples)  Thomas and his brother Barnabas seem to have been very closely associated until Thomas decided to leave Kentucky in 1828 and begin a new life in Indiana.  They likely never saw each other again, since Barnabas later gathered up his family and permanently settled in Missouri.

St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church

Thomas took up his residence in a roughly-hewn log cabin situated near the Little Blue River, one mile east of Shelbyville.  In the fall of 1828, the first Catholic Mass in history of Shelby County, Indiana occured in this house.  At that time, the congregation numbered about 30 members.  On September 6, 1838, a contract was signed to build a church for $619.00 on two acres of land donated by Thomas Worland. The St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church was built in 1839.

Two of Thomas' daughters, Mary Ann and Eleanor, entered convents. Eleanor became "Sister Mary Saint Paul"; Mary Ann became "Sister Mary Clara."  Sister Mary Clara later wrote a book entitled Lives Of the Saints, where she described the Worland family's influence on Catholicism in Shelby County.

Thomas Worland's youngest daughter, Eulilia, was "feeble-minded." According to Thomas' will, five hundred dollars (in addition to her portion of the estate) was to be set aside after his death for her support.  She only lived nine more years after her father died.

Thomas Worland died July 13, 1850 in Shelby County, Indiana.  He was buried at St. Vincent's Catholic Cemetery, on the land he donated to the church.

52 Ancestors: #28 Lewis Milburn Worland and the Cross-cut Saw

Lewis Milburn Worland, Shelbyville, Indiana

My great-great grandfather Lewis Milburn Worland was born May 26, 1867 in Shelby County, Indiana.  His parents were John William "Smokey John" Worland and Emily Montgomery.  Lewis was the fifth of nine children. As a young adult, Lewis was worked on his father's farm, along with his two older brothers.

Lewis was married to Rebecca Annabel Fisher on January 18, 1894.  At 37, Rebecca was ten years older than her husband.  The picture on the left was taken just prior to his leaving for Jasper Count, Indiana to claim Rebecca as his bride.

The couple had two sons and a daughter: Leonard, Dola, and Luther.   Leonard and Dola were born when Lewis and Rebecca lived in Jasper County.  For a short time, the Worlands resided in Jennings County, which is where their daughter Dola later met her husband, Clyde Holtzlider.

Worland family c. 1901.

Lewis was a farmer for most of his life, but for a time he was a sheriff in Milhousen, Decatur County.  Lewis' son, Leonard, also became a sheriff.  My grandma, Martha Holtzlider, used to visit her uncle Leonard at the Shelby County jail.  She remembered taking food to the prisoners and sliding the trays under the doors.

Six of Lewis' grandchildren served during WWII.  His grandson and namesake, Milburn Holtzlider, posthumously received the Purple Heart Award after he was shot by a sniper at Iwo Jima.

On July 17, 1947,  Lewis died from a heart attack.  He had been cutting wood using a cross-cut saw; he was 80 years old.  A month later, his wife Rebecca had a paralytic stroke and passed away.

52 Ancestors: #21 Rebecca Annabel Fisher, "Aunt Annie"

Rebecca and three of her six sisters.
Clockwise, from top left: Eliza Jane, Mary Ellen,
Minerva C., and Rebecca Annabel Fisher.

Rebecca Annabel Fisher was born November 8, 1857 in Marion County, Indiana.  Her parents were Henry James Fisher and Nancy Elizabeth McLaughlin.  (The story is handed down that Henry and Nancy eloped to be married.) She grew up in a large household, being the eighth of ten children.  Her father was an entrepreneur in the tile making business in Jasper County, Indiana.

Rebecca's sister,  Eliza Jane, died in 1880 at the age of 19.  She left behind a newborn daughter, Mary Lillie Ellen.  Rebecca, unmarried and living with her parents, helped to raise her niece.

At the age of 36, Rebecca married Lewis Milburn Worland in Rensselaer, Indiana. He was ten years younger than her. They had two sons, Leonard and Luther, and one daughter, Dola (my great grandmother.)  The Worlands first settled in Jasper County then relocated to Shelby County, Indiana around 1900.

They moved to Jennings County, Indiana around 1915.  Soon after they moved, their daughter Dola met her future husband Clyde Holtzlider at the United Brethren Church in Pierceville.

Worlands, c. 1897: Lewis, Leonard, Rebecca, and Dola.

 Rebecca (right) and her niece Mary Lillie Ellen

Rebecca lived to be nearly 90 years old.  By the time she reached old age, she was completely blind. She died at her daughter's house in Greensburg on August 30, 1947 and was buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Shelbyville, Indiana.  Her husband had died only a month before her.